When we learned that Riz Ahmed (Rogue One: A Star Wars Story) would appear in the Venom movie, everybody was quick to assume that he’d play Carnage. But in June, Sony chairman Tom Rothman said that Carnage would be a minor character, or would even be saved for a second Venom installment.
Since that time, new rumors replaced the old. More recently, they’ve connected Venom with Silver and Black, another Marvel movie Sony has in development. There was some speculation that Ahmed was cast as the Chameleon, a Spider-Man villain with connections to Kraven the Hunter. Sony has also teased a Kraven project.
Riz Ahmed (Variety)
It turns out that Riz Ahmed will play another character altogether. Atlanta Filming recently shared a pic from the Venom set that indicates that the actor will play Carlton Drake. Drake heads the Life Foundation, which plays an important role in the Lethal Protector story arc that is the basis for Venom.
This is what happens when they walk out of the wrong door…side and behind view.
Dr. Drake from #Venom, in costume. pic.twitter.com/e5wNiOqUKL
"” Atlanta Filming (@AtlantaFilming) December 22, 2017
In the comic books, the Life Foundation captured Venom and extracted seeds from him that were used to create five Symbiotes: Scream, Phage, Riot, Lasher, and Agony. The new villains were then used to lure Spider-Man into a fight, during which the web-crawler sided with Venom to defeat the Symbiotes.
Obviously, we’ve heard nothing about a Spider-Man appearance in Venom. But Sony could use this Lethal Protector plotline to introduce Carnage in its Marvel Universe.
Venom will be released on October 5, 2018.
